1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a light emitting unit which has a light source and a light guiding member which makes a plurality of display portions emit light with light emitted from the light source.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, in order to operate a device, the operability is improved by making display portions which display operation-related characters, figures or the like emit light. Lights emitted from light sources towards the back surfaces of such display portions make the display portions emit light. Therefore, when a plurality of display portions are made to emit light, a plurality of light sources are necessary. As a result, the cost of the device increases. Thus, it is important for the reduction of the cost of the device to control the number of the used light sources. For example, in JP-A-2007-308102, a light emitting unit which uses one light source to make a plurality of display portions emit light is proposed.
The light emitting unit described in JP-A-2007-308102 has a light source and a light guiding member. The light guiding member includes a columnar light incident portion (light incident guiding portion) and a plurality of light guiding portions (branched extending light guiding portions). The columnar light incident portion is arranged to face a light emitting surface of the light source. One end of the light incident portion is a light incident surface, which is an end surface on which light emitted from the light source is incident. The plurality of light guiding portions are branched from the light incident portion (light incident guiding portion) and extend towards the back surfaces of a plurality of display portions, and makes the display portions emit light when light incident from the light incident portion (light incident guiding portion) is transmitted from end surfaces of the plurality of light guiding portions (branched extending light guiding portions).